Green-bearded Helmetcrest

About the Green-bearded Helmetcrest

The green-bearded helmetcrest (Oxypogon guerinii) is a species of hummingbird in the "coquettes", tribe Lesbiini of subfamily Lesbiinae. It is endemic to Colombia. The green-bearded helmetcrest was formally described in 1840 by the French ornithologist Auguste Boissonneau from a specimen collected near Bogotá in central Colombia. This species is now placed in the genus Oxypogon that was introduced by the English ornithologist John Gould in 1848. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek oxy meaning ″sharp or pointed″ and pogon meaning beard. The species name was chosen to honour the French naturalist and collector Félix Guérin-Méneville. The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.

The green-bearded helmetcrest was formerly considered a species named bearded helmetcrest with four subspecies. In 2014 the South America Classification Committee (SACC) of the American Ornithological Society agreed to a proposal to split this species into four separate species based on plumage differences and morphometrics. Other taxonomies soon followed suit. The other species are the buffy helmetcrest (O. stuebelii) of the Cordillera Central, the blue-bearded... Wikipedia →